The Senator said they were the ordinary business people and might any
of them rise to be President of the Republic. We are perfectly overcome
with admiration and respect for their enormous advancing and adaptive
power, because just to look at we should not call these of the
Senator's class. But think what brains they must have, and what
vitality; and those things matter a great deal more than looks to a
country.
The Senator said the type would culminate in Chicago, and gradually get
finer again out in the far West. And he seemed right, from the
impression we got of the crowd in this hotel. It was rather like a
Christmas nightmare, when everyone had turned into a plum pudding, or
those gingerbread men the old woman by the Wavebeach pier used to sell.
Do you remember, Mamma? Perfectly square and solid. They are ahead of
Detroit, and at the six coat stage here. Probably all as good as gold,
and kind and nice and full of virtues; but for strangers who don't know
all these things, just to look at, they make one think one is dreaming.
Do you suppose it is, if they have to be so much among pork and meat
generally, perhaps that makes them solid? We did not know a soul to
speak to, nor did the Senator either, though he said he was acquainted
with many nice people in Chicago; so perhaps they were just travellers
like us after all, and we have no right to judge of a place by them.
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